TPSAD 23

"Hen?" Alex asked. He was worried. Was something wrong with Henry? Did Henry need help? Was he sick? "Hen? Are you sure?"

"The way I see it either you want to be with me and we risk everything. Then I am going to want time to date you and get to know you more intimately. Or, you don't date me, and I need time to heal my broken heart. Either way, stepping down from all royal duties seemed like a good place to start."

"Hen, sweetheart?" Alex took a step closer, pushing off the door in an effort to close the distance between them. "This feels like an ultimatum."

"Because it is." Henry sighed and Alex was close enough to see the tears gathering in the corner of his eye. "I don't want a life in a royal box, any more than you do."

"Baby, if you want to abdicate first, then ask me out, that's more than fine by me. If you need more time ..." Alex offered, touching Henry on the curve above his hips. The spot that Alex always seeks out and always feels like he might die if he can't hold.

"This isn't the first time I have planned to abdicate, Alex. But it will be the last." Henry declared, looking straight into Alex's watery eyes on him. "Any idea where a washed up, has-been prince might be useful in the wide world? Somewhere in the US, perhaps? I think it'll be easier to move away from the UK for a bit. But the bottom line is, Alex. I want you. Abdication or no abdication."

"Baby," Alex sighed softly, closing the distance and pressing his lips to Henry's briefly. "Austin is beautiful, but I am biased because it's home. New York is lovely, Brooklyn in particular. I mean it's cold in Winter and insufferably humid in summer. It's crowded and busy, but June and Nora live there. San Diego is wonderful too, it's sunny a lot of the time. My pa lives there. But I will go where ever you want. You want to go to Scotland or Wales, we can go there too."

"What I want, is to go bed." Henry grinned at him. "With you, in case that wasn't clear enough."

"Crystal." Alex swallowed hard. He was no longer hungry for their late dinner. Not that it would be a hardship for him to skip dinner when the three of them had been grazing on food all day and that Henry was finally in his bed. He wasn't drunk and Alex didn't have to rush off to work, or to Gabriella at the hospital.

Alex pressed his lips to Henry's as his arms snaked around Henry's body holding him in place. Henry's mouth immediately complied with Alex's brush of his tongue, encouraging them to open. His tongue brushed gently against Henry's and the noise that escaped Alex's mouth was inhumane. Henry smiled into the kiss, proudly knowing with a simple brush of his tongue against Alex's, he had made that sound. Alex pulled Henry closer to him, their bodies flush. If Alex could have, he probably would have crawled inside Henry.

Henry managed to spin them around and walk Alex to the bed without breaking their kiss. As he gently lowered Alex onto the end of the bed, in a seated position, he broke the kiss off. Kissing along Alex's stubbled jawline, the rub of his day old stubble feeling delicious against Henry's mouth. Their close proximity faltered momentarily, until Alex pulled Henry onto the bed with him. Straddling his thighs.

The feel of Henry against Alex was delicious as Henry pressed his lips to Alex's neck and sucked his lips to it, eager to mark his new territory. "Baby," Alex panted between them. Alex's hands were untucking Henry's shirt and enjoying the expansive, naked skin of his back, beneath the shirt. "No visible marks."

"-Lex, want you." Henry begged, recapturing Alex's lips. "Need you." He panted between kisses and Alex moved to rain kisses all over his face. Alex's mouth was exploring his face and neck, while his hands urged Henry to let him remove his shirt. Alex nipped on a particularly sensitive part of Henry's neck, right at the junction where his shoulder and neck met. Henry moaned out loud, causing Alex to moan too.

"Fuck, Hen!" Alex moaned into his mouth, ripping Henry's shirt over his head in one smooth motion and returned to kissing Henry. Henry's hands weren't idle either. Henry's hands danced at the hem of his shirt, exploring the band of his sweatpants. Breaking the kiss, Henry ripped it over his head and captured Alex's lips once more in one swift move. Although not as seamless as he had been planning. Their teeth clashed and their hands grabbed, eager to get a purchase on each other's flesh.

"-Lex," Henry panted in between kisses. "Need your mouth on me." Alex grinned and kissed him once again, as Henry ground himself against Alex's body.

"Hennnn," Alex's mouth moaned into Henry's, wantonly. Alex fed up with this rutting and panting, wanting more, desperately. So he stood up, using all of those lacrosse muscles he had honed over the years, hoisting Henry and his polo thighs in his arms. Henry's legs locking around Alex's waist, their manhood's rutting together with a barrier between around, Alex hastily deposited Henry on the bed and climbed on top of him and recaptured his lips for him. Henry's legs automatically fell open on instinct for Alex to climb into. Climbing in between Henry's legs felt like home and Alex couldn't help but moan, as he felt complete."

A-lex," Henry's voice whined and moaned, a bit louder than he had been before. Alex looked up at him through his hooded eyelashes where he was peppering love bites to Henry's chest. "Fucking eyelashes!" Henry hissed, taking grasp of the duvet cover beneath him.

"Hen, baby." Alex started and Henry's body shuddered in the pleasure that single word induced. The shudder coursed through his veins in a way that no one else had ever been able to achieve before. "Do you want the girls to know? You've gonna have to be quiet."

Henry grinned up at him from where Alex was toying with the waistband of his jeans, nuzzling him through his denim trousers. "Fuck, Alex." Henry panted thrusting up slightly to meet Alex's face, encouraging his nuzzling. "Need you now."

"I've got you, baby." Alex grinned at him, winking at him from his vantage point and Henry collapsed back against the duvet and prayed to every deity that he knew of, that Alex's mouth wouldn't be his demise.

Alex's nimble fingers worked the fly of his jeans and before long, Henry was shimmying out of them, with Alex's help as he pressed love bites into Henry's inner thighs and nosed at his dick through the elastane cotton covering. "You're driving me goddamn crazy," Henry muttered staring at the ceiling as Alex's hot mouth wrapped its tongue around the head of his newly exposed cock. "Oh, fuck!" Henry's hands found the curls atop Alex's head as Alex swallowed his manhood whole, right to the base. "Fuck me!" Henry muttered, realising Alex doesn't have a gag reflex.

Alex pulled off his hard cock, slightly curved with a sloppy pop and stared up at Henry with hooded eyes through his long, luscious eyelashes. "Is that what you want, baby? For me to fuck you?" Alex asked with a smirk.

"God, yes." Henry panted as Alex moved off him in a hurry, pulling his sweats off as he made his way into his ensuite bathroom and into the medicine cabinet. Returning before Henry could sit up. He tossed a strip of condoms on the bed and a bottle of lube.

"That's what you want, Princess?" Alex asked, pleased to see Henry's eyes haze over in lust and want. "How do you want it?"

Henry stood up today and pushed Alex down on the bed. "I am going to ride you." Henry told him straddling Alex's naked hips as he sat on the end of the bed, picking up the bottle of lube, one handed. "Take you just like this until you're begging me to let you cum."

Henry's slippery, lubed up hands were coated in lube and he was working himself open, as Alex's hand was pumping Henry's manhood. Catching Henry's eyes and the look of pleasure on his face, Alex grasped the strip of condoms and ripped one from the strip. Gently tearing it open, he rolled the sheath over and lubed himself up. "Ready, baby?" Alex asked him, as Henry leaned up and over Alex's upright body. The tip of Alex's cock just grabbed the edge of Henry's open hole, as Henry slowly sank down on it.

"Alex, darling!" Henry panted, breathing through the adjustment period. Alex's cock was long and girthy, it curved in all the right places and Henry felt like he was being split in two from the inside out. In the best possible way. Alex felt like Henry's ass was trying to squeeze his dick off right there.

"You're gonna have to move, Hen. Or this is going to be over all too soon." Alex warned him.

Henry smirked at him, capturing his top lip between him. Giving him a small movements at first, letting his body adjust to Alex's size, Alex resisted the urge to automatically thrust up into Henry on instinct. "Can't have that, can we?" He murmured, increasing his movements more.

Alex sitting on the edge of the bed, legs splayed wide open and Henry straddling his lap. Alex's cock all lubed and shiny, splitting into Henry's hole as Henry rides him. Alex meeting him thrust for thrust, their lips only parting for air. Moaning into each other's mouths. Small nips and bites spurring each other on. Alex's hands on Henry's cheeks, spreading them open and both men looking thoroughly debauched and wrecked in the best way.

Henry reached out to take himself in hand and Alex swatted his hand away. "You're gonna cum from my cock inside you and nothing else." Alex told him in no uncertain terms as he thrusted harder into Henry, meeting him.

Each thrust directly hitting Henry's prostate, as Alex smothered his Henry's loud moans with his mouth. "So close," Henry panted, his tone begging. "Don't stop!"

"I've got you, baby." Alex whispered into the shell of his ear. Alex' let his forefinger trace Henry's puffy rim, that delicate and oversensitive piece of skin. His ministrations driving Henry wild with pleasure. Henry biting his lip to muffle the sound. As Alex breached that puffy rim further, stretching him slightly as he slipped the tip of his index finger inside Henry, alongside his lubed up, touch sensitive cock, Henry was shooting hot, white ropes of cum all over Alex's chest.

"Fuck!" Alex panted, urging Henry down onto his own climax. His own climax caught in the latex sheath, but how Alex wished he could feel it dripping from Henry's puffy rim.

Resting their foreheads against one another for a moment, drinking in what they had just shared on many different planes. Henry shifted, as Alex withdrew his now lax cock from his hole, Henry's legs shaking and his body mourning the loss. Tying the condom off in a knot, Alex tossed it onto the floor, in the direction of the bin, falling short.

Unsteadily on his feet, Henry stood, unsure of his next move. They had just done the one thing Henry had wanted to do, but hadn't planned on. Henry wanted a chance to wine and dine Alex, to sweep him off his feet. To make him fall further in love with him, before the fell into bed.

"Hen?" Alex asked, seeing Alex with one of Gabriella's baby wipes in hand approach him. He had climaxed so hard, he had managed splash his own stomach when he had painted Alex's abs and stomach with his spunk. "May I?"

Henry nodded, his voice felt thick and unable to form words. Alex was murmuring in his ear. Soft words of comfort, encouragement and reassurance. "Are you ok?" Henry finally asked when he found his voice.

"I should be asking you that, there." Alex chuckled, as he pulled back the covers and climbed under, with Henry following suit. "You went a little non-verbal there."

"You made me non-verbal." Henry supplied and Alex couldn't help but be his usual charming self. He let the compliment got to his head and begin to inflate his ego.

Before turning serious, he looked over at Henry's voice and his eyes softening as they always seemed to when Henry was close enough to him to notice. "I've never had a lover so receptive to me before. So into it. I ... I, ah ... didn't hurt you? Did I?"

"Hurt me?" Henry asked, incredulously. "It was the most pleasurable moment of my life."

"I hardly believe that."

Henry and Alex exchanged small cheeky kisses, under the covers in the darkness and stillness of the night. Occasionally one of them whispering their want or whimpering their need. Somewhere in the middle of the night, they both woke, rutted against each other, exchanging hand jobs and bodily fluids. Before cleaning up and falling back to sleep.

Nora and June woke around seven and ventured out into the kitchen. They heard movement in there and were extremely surprised to find Henry in the kitchen with a happy, giggly Gabriella on his hip, preparing tea and coffee. They stopped short of disrupting them and watched as Henry prepared her bottle and some breakfast for her.

Coming in, they exchanged morning greetings, as if having the spare heir to the England's throne in the kitchen on Thursday morning was a common occurrence. Alex came in only a moment later, placed a kiss on top of Gabriella's head and Henry lovingly handed him a cup of coffee.

Alex was freshly showered and dressed for work. He had to go into the shelter today as he had to catch up on some paperwork which had a Friday deadline. Alex had sat at the breakfast table, on the other side of Henry, who had placed himself next to Gabriella's high chair. Henry was feeding Gabriella bits of the banana out of his cereal bowl, while Alex was slicing up apple for himself and Henry. Silently, he handed Henry a slice of apple, the skin pealed, and he passed it over to Gabriella on instinct.

Once their breakfasts were ready, June caught Nora's eye, surprised at the domesticity of it all. It seemed so scripted and rehearsed. But it wasn't. It was simply another facet of how their relationship had changed.

"What?!" Alex asked the girls, a small smile on his face. He had found himself struggling to keep the smile off his face, as he remembered everything that had happened last night and how they had finally taken the next step in their relationship.

"Nothing." Nora smirked at them.

"I was thinking of taking Nora to Paris, for the weekend." June muttered, changing the subject. "It's just that we're so close, and we flew over unexpectedly ..."

"And it's your wedding anniversary on Monday." Alex finished for her with a wide grin. "I think it's a marvellous idea. If you're wanting to drive, you guys can take my car. We won't need it this weekend. I imagine we will still be laying low. Plus Henry has a car seat, if we need a car."

"The Euro star is supposed to be nice." Henry mused out loud. "The rail trip is no longer than two and a half hours. Granted, I haven't taken it since my father died. But we would always take the Euro star when we went to Paris. There's a gorgeous little boutique hotel off a small lane way not too far from the station, it's quiet, private and peaceful. We used to stay there, when not in Paris for royal duties. It's very select. Just say the word and I would be honoured to make the call on your behalf."

"Hen?" Alex asked softly, "You don't have to do that."

"Actually, I really want to." He told Alex softly. "They've been here for you and helping you for almost two weeks now. They've been stepping in and picking up my slack while I dealt with royal duties."

"They're my family, Hen. It's kind of their job." Alex reminded him. "Besides, I wouldn't call your grandmother dying 'royal duties'."

"I would." He laughed. "Alex, that's all she was, in the end. A royal duty. Let me do this for them."

"You're gonna be the death of me, Henry." Alex muttered. "I swear to God!"

"Henry, thank you." June hugged him.

The sounds of Google news alerts pinged on various phones throughout the flat. Alex reached for his phone and read the alert, as if he didn't know what it was already going to say.

Breaking News:
His Royal Highness Prince Henry will be taking a step back from all of his royal duties and obligations, including within his role at the Fox-Okonjo LGBT shelter, effective immediately. Prince Henry is going to be taking this time to see where he will be focusing his next endeavours.

"Why the shelter too?" June asked him and he smiled, winking at Alex. "You love your shelter work and you're proud of your work there."

"A multitude of reasons, really." Henry smiled. "Mostly so the media will not hound the shelter in my absence. When the press gets aggressive with the shelter, it's Alex's job to step in. Another measured and calculated step in protecting Alex and Gabriella from the media. The press are going to go wild when they find out I have a boyfriend. I have to do everything I can to protect them."

"In the meantime, no one breathes a word of Henry's presence in my home, with me or with Gabriella. Understood?" Alex asked both of them. The question almost seemed redundant. They would never out someone nor would they ever spill anything to media, knowingly. "Meanwhile, I will be having a meeting with Hen, Catherine and the palace lawyers late this afternoon. My thought is getting a legal injunction against the media, before they discover us. An injunction to prevent them from publishing, or writing about Gabriella in the media. I'm a grown man, I can take the backlash and the abuse, but I won't stand for Gabriella copping it."

"Neither of you." Henry reiterated, taking Alex's hand in his and bringing it to his lips. "Alex, you don't deserve to cop it either."

"Might want to give mom, dad and Leo a heads up on this Alex." June warned her brother. "When this hits in the news, they're gonna be hurt they didn't know. Plus, it'll probably make both of their jobs easier. If they have a plan. It's not just going to be a shit show for the three of you, but for them too. I know you don't live in the US anymore, but it's an election year, hermano."

"Hen?"

"You're going to have to give them more of a heads up than that, Ale." Nora told them both. "Especially Ellen, they're going to need to wrap their heads around this new change before they sit in on meetings with lawyers and the Queen."

"Alex, Darling." Henry whispered, softly. "It's your call, but I can be right by your side when you tell them. Plus, Oscar kind of likes me, right?"

June cackled and laughed at Henry, as did Alex. But June was laughing exceptionally hard. "Yeah, Henry. He likes you." She told him, trying to keep a straight face. "Your best friend and our dad have been trying to get the two of you together. So it's a safe bet to say he likes you."

"Christ, Pez." Henry cried, "I should tell him. I mean, he knows about the shelters. But I should be the one to tell him…"

"You let Alex do unspeakable things to do you, last night." Nora finished. "Yeah, the walls are thin and for the record, it sounded like you gave as good as you got."

"Oh God." Alex groaned, hiding his head and his face in his hands. He had risked a glance at Henry who red as a tomato and just as mortified.

"It's ok, Prince Charming." Nora continued. "I mean, I get it! I've been there. He does have a great cock and when he says he knows how to use it, he means it."

"NORA!" June exclaimed, mortified. "NO!"

Henry's rubbing at his eyes, and Alex feels like he is going to be sick to his stomach. "Too much?" Nora winced at everyone's recoil. She had known at exactly what point it was too far, but she had wanted to give a subtle hint to Henry. She was there long before Henry came along, and she would be there long after. That if Henry couldn't handle her presence, in the position as Best Friend, he might as well just leave now. "Sorry."

Henry ended up going with Alex and Gabriella in to the shelter, mostly so he could organise Nora and June's accomodation for them. he wanted to surprise them with a candlelight dinner to celebrate as well. Alex purchased the Eurostar tickets for them, Henry purchased and paid for the accomodation, as well as a candlelight dinner for two, on the balcony of his favourite brasserie which had a great view of the Seine and the Eiffel Tower.

Alex worked fast and studiously, in the two hours they had allocated in the office. While Henry printed everything off and and collated it all for June and Nora, Alex brushed up on the new shelter business that needed his attention. Zahra had been very thorough, whilst she had been acting as protemp in the wake of his leave.

"Alexander, Darling," Pez had cooed ashe graced Alex with his presence in his office. Henry was on the sofa with Gabriella asleep in the pack and play. "Oh, Hazza! I wasn't expecting you here too." Pez tilted his head, before turning and closing the door ever so gently, as not to disrupt Alex's sleeping beauty. "Is there something the two of you need to share with your Auntie Pezza?"

"Maybe." Henry grinned at his best friend, and winked at Alex.

"So H, on the first whole day that Mary is dead and literally buried in the ground, an announcement suddenly goes out telling the whole world you are stepping back from your royal duties and your shelters. Shelters that are your babies, and I miraculously find you here, hiding in Alex's office. Not a PPO in sight." Pez calculates as he ticks off the facts on his fingers. "If I had to guess, I would guess that you gave your PPOs the slip either before the announcement went out, or some time last night."

"My PPOs, Shaan and my mother, all know where to find me." Henry stated, staring at Pez. Mentally imploring Pez not to delve too deep into this issue.

"This is a funny way of stepping back." Pez declared, and Alex gave his boss a little nod. He did actually agree with Pez. The issue had been discussed at length this morning, loudly, in the bedroom after breakfast. Before the two of them had reached a stalemate and come to a decision together. "Shall I speculate where you slept last night? Who, perhaps?"

"Do you have a question, Pez?" Alex asked, looking directly at him.

"Well, that's all the confirmation I needed, Alexander." Pez grinned.

"Did you have a reason to annoy us? Or was it just a lucky happenstance?" Henry teased his friend.

"Actually, I came in for a reason, and it's better that I found you together." Percy said, straightening himself up, turning serious. Percy was rarely serious, unless it was in regard to business, then he was deadly serious. "Remember our discussions a couple of months back about expanding our program and we made a shortlist of all the locations that another shelter might be viable? I was wondering if you and Henry might take that list with home with you and narrow it down to say three or four locations. Bonus points if you can practice law or easily transfer your degree or pass the bar there Alex, I really like the work you do with the foundation and I would like to continue having you represent the charity."

"You want international or domestic?" Alex quipped, and Henry chuckled.

"That's a decision for the two of you, seeing as how you will doing the legal side of things, and Henry will be actually setting it up." Percy announced, winking at Henry.

"It's like a transfer, Alex." Henry told him, in earnest, watching his boyfriend's face form an o shape in understanding. "Yesterday when I asked you, 'Any idea where a washed up, has-been prince might be useful in the wide world?' that was what I meant."

"But you mentioned the US?" Alex dropped casually. Alex didn't want to get his hopes up that the US might actually be a possibility.

"Yes, well I thought that you might like having your family nearby while Gabriella was young." Henry surmised, looking Alex over. "I know you miss your family, and I will miss mine, but I have more resources to fly back and forth to see mine. Quite frankly, I feel that some distance between the UK and myself will be a good thing. Both post-abdication and because I need some space to heal from the lifetime of mental trauma that being a prince has given me."

"I think, that you two should discuss this back at Alex's place." Percy firmly suggested. "Go on, pack up and get out of here. The stench of horn town betwixt you is rife, and I bet you haven't even spoken to your family yet, Alex."

"Did Dad tell you that? I hear you're buddy-buddy with him now." Alex mentioned with a small chuckle.

"Your sister, actually." Pez grinned. "Her and that wife of hers, and I, we keep in contact."

"Please do not, I beg of you." Alex cried. "Have you no shame?"

"No he doesn't." Henry replied, feeling sorry for Alex.

"I don't, usually." Pez lamented. "But in the case, they shot me down faster than I could asked. Apparently, its sapphic central, and they're not interested in poly or triad."

"I really don't need to know this." Alex muttered, unable and unwilling to fathom a world where Pez propositioned his sister and best friend in to allowing him to be their third.

"Oh, you sweet summer child." Pez cooed, and Henry gave Alex a fond smile.

"Yet, it was ok for your best friend to comment on the size of your cock and how well you use it like it's a trending topic on twitter." Henry grumbled.

"You like it." Alex joked.

"I don't like knowing that she knows too, Alex." Henry grinned at him, taking Alex's hand and kissing the back of it. "Even if she is now your sister's wife."

"Are you a little jealous of Nora?" Alex asked, almost giddy. No one had been jealous over his past. Normally, he had been the jealous one in the past.

"Not jealous, just ... Do you know how much I want you?"

"As much as I want you."

Henry leaned over and pulled Alex into his lap and into a kiss.

"Maybe don't do that in public until you two come out as a couple." Pez had lamented. "Wouldn't want to get outed by someone before you're ready."

Crap, they had forgotten he was there!